This is Matthew’s story, how he came to us as a rescue and how he
struggled and overcame his terrible injuries to be a happy (albeit
spoiled) Manchester.In June
1997, I found Matthew lying badly injured in the Vancouver SPCA
Hospital. He had been hit by a car on a busy road in east Vancouver,
almost a freeway, and left to die. Matthew had no tattoos or ID and his
owner never contacted the SPCA to claim him.His most
serious injury was a badly shattered back leg and he was in agony. The
SPCA had inserted a temporary pin to stabilize his leg while it healed
but Matthew was not doing well and no one wanted him. I adopted him,
named him Matthew, and brought him home. Within a week of having the pin
removed, his leg broke again on its own. We found a veterinary
orthopedic surgeon who gave us the option to amputate (recommended) or
the insertion of a special metal plate that had to be screwed into
Matthew’s leg. Well, many $$ and a year later, Matthew was doing very
well, thank you very much! We even found a physiotherapist who would
work on him after office hours when her human patients had left and this
was a tremendous help.
Matthew is our first Manchester and what a
character he is! He is also one of the smartest dogs I have ever come
across and has an absolutely amazing ability to communicate with us. He
shares

his house with a Doberman and two
miniature dachshunds and rules the roost. He loves to go for walks when
it is not raining and always gets the best spot in the sunroom on warm,
sunny days. He is indeed a special fellow and we are so blessed to have
him. Matthew came to us when he needed us most but he has given more to
us than we ever could to him.

Matthew is a
large standard (24 lbs.!) with beautifully cropped ears and is now
probably somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. He may have lived in an
apartment with an older person and a cat, as he knows how to use a
litterbox and has many catlike mannerisms. When examined at the SPCA
hospital, he had no discernable tattoo and was not neutered.My fondest
hope is that someone may recognize Matthew or his lines and I could
locate his breeder and let him/her know that Matthew is well. I would
dearly love to talk about Matthew with his breeder. If you think you
might have an idea as to Matthew’s background, please let me know. You
can contact me via e-mail at scoghlan@infoserve.net
or leave me a message at (604) 261-8264 and I will be happy to call you
back.The sad part
of Matthew’s story is that no one wanted him and he could so easily be
any one of our Mannys, fallen upon unexpected hard times. Fortunately,
there are not many Manchester rescues in this country but as Matthew can
tell you, they do exist.